2011 In Review, And a Look Forward to 2012

Last updated on 02 Jan 2012

Although I didn’t start out with a plan for 2011, I’m going to perform a brief review of the last year and outline some of the remarkable things that happened to me. This will hopefully help me feel like I’ve achieved something significant.

Got married

Moved to the US permanently

Started a new job at an Austin based startup

Made some new friends, and started playing D&D again (this is something I didn’t think I could ever do again, so it’s a good thing for me)

Visited India for the first time

Completed 2 courses in Stanfords experimental online university courses – Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. This lead me to watch some lectures and learn material I’ve been meaning to get around to for a few years

Realized the importance of working on only one thing at a time.

The last one, I think, is the most important to my future growth.

Up until now, I’ve been trying to do too many things at once, and thus got nothing done. I’ve always been saying I’ll concentrate on one thing at a time, but I never follow through.

The Stanford online classes helped me finally follow through with that goal, and for 2 months, I focused only on completing those classes. It opened my eyes to just how important it is to work on only one thing at a time.

Due to this, I am devoting the entirety of 2012 to my artwork, and I’m setting some specific goals to measure my progress. After all, if you’re not measuring it, you can’t learn from it.

These goals are as follows:

Finish the 4′×5′ airbrush portrait of myself and my wife for my mother-in-law.

Sell a piece of artwork

Earn enough money through art on the side to buy a Cintiq

Submit art for Spectrum 20 (being accepted would be fantastic, but submitting is good enough)

This isn’t the full list of goals, but it is a list of landmarks to mark my progress. I’m hoping that I’ll get the first 2 done before June.
At the end of 2012, I’ll review how I did with these goals.